Avian health care can become much more manageable by adhering to certain dietary principles to prevent the development of disease. Once a bird becomes ill, it is much more difficult to provide care, as the health issue must be correctly diagnosed and treated with the correct type and amount of medication. For self-preservation, birds instinctually hide their weaknesses and may only leave a short window of time to respond to an illness and appropriately intervene. The end result may include costly veterinary services or at worst, fatality. When considering those alternatives, preventative care becomes a more reasonable and common sense approach.
The avian species depends heavily on their digestive systems to stay nourished and healthy. Birds have high metabolisms, and their digestive systems are faster and more efficient than other animals. Most birds cannot afford to store heavy food materials within their bodies for long periods, and they usually need a constant supply of nutrients to sustain activity.
The avian large and small intestines are often populated with both beneficial bacterial microflora and opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria. The pathogenic bacteria come from what birds may pick up from contaminated food or water, bird droppings, or other infected sources in the environment. The microflora are carefully balanced and that balance is maintained by intestinal conditions, which are distinctly affected by diet. The first symptom that appears when the balance is disrupted is inflammation. Inflammation is the body's first response in an effort to restore balance. If that balance is not restored, it will progress to a disease in which the pathogenic or opportunistic bacteria outnumber the beneficial bacteria.
There is a further desire in the poultry industry for methods to prevent avian disease that are considered natural, herbal or organic remedies. As such, it would be beneficial in the industry to develop natural avian treatments that are able to act in a preventative manner toward a wide range of infectious diseases, internal and external parasites, and environment-related problems. It would be further desirable that these treatments would include additional natural ingredients to aid in egg development, building improved immunity and growth in the young, respiratory and digestive health, and to counteract the deleterious effects of parasitic and pathogenic exposure, mating, brooding, pecking order, season change, transporting and other stress inducing events. The present invention is directed to an avian feed composition to be used as a trophorestorative that restores structure and function to reduce the risk of pathogens and parasites that destroy the balance of internal management of good health. When this balance is destroyed, disease and poor quality of internal function result.